It’s cold & flu season again, which means if you haven’t already gotten your flu shot, it’s time to get on it! It’s also around the time for most of us to get our latest Covid boosters as well. I know a lot of people who took advantage of getting both shots at the same time. I’ve also talked to people who were reluctant to do both shots on the same day because they tend to have negative reactions to one or both, especially the Covid one. You should always talk to your doctor and do what’s best for yourself. There is good news, though, for anyone who is getting both vaccines at once. According to a new study, getting both your flu and Covid shots together produces a stronger antibody response.
A major study shows that giving the COVID and flu shots together produces a stronger antibody response.
The research was presented on Monday at the Vaccines Summit Boston, an annual scientific conference. It measured the antibody levels of 42 health care workers in Massachusetts.
Twelve received a bivalent COVID booster and seasonal flu shot on the same day. 30 others got shots on different days. The study found those who received the shots together had higher antibody levels against COVID.
It’s important to note that the research has not been published in a scientific journal.
Scientists say they want to try to replicate this data with this year’s vaccines as well.
[From NBC Boston]
As they point out in the article, this was just a small study done on 42 people, but those results sound really promising. I hope further research yields similar results because getting both at the same visit would save so much time. It’s such a pain to have to take the time out of your already busy day, or even to have to take time off of work, to get one vaccine, let alone having to do it twice within a short amount of time. This year, our pediatrician did a family flu shot clinic on a Saturday back in September, which was great because it meant I didn’t have to take the kids out of school early and if they did have any mild reactions like being tired and cranky, we could deal with it over the weekend. The only downside to getting the shots so early was that the office didn’t have the latest Covid booster yet, so we ended up getting boosted at a local pharmacy. I’m going to keep an eye out for other studies that come out about this subject.
Unai Huizi / ImageBROKER / Avalon, Unai Huizi / ImageBROKER / Avalon, Oleksandr Latkun / ImageBROKER / Avalon
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